Fourth Industrial Revolution in Africa: It's the Energy

Fourth Industrial Revolution in Africa: It's the Energy

Stephen Yeboah 25/06/2018 6

The world is at the dawn of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which promises a new wave of technologies that will change how things are done today. As with the first three revolutions, the element of the Fourth Industrial Revolution at its core will be energy.

The first industrial revolution was about making use of steam and water to power machines. In the second, electricity was the key driver of major inventions that boosted primary production. The third revolution was based on the rapid fusion of digital technology, computing and the internet.

But without energy sufficiency, Africa’s chances of participating in the promise that the Fourth Industrial Revolution offers are seriously compromised. The continent’s huge energy deficits leave more than 640 million people, or two-thirds of the continent’s population without access to electricity.

Africa’s Digital Transformation

Digital transformation, through development of the information and communication technology (ICT) sector, is a critical enabler of Africa’s knowledge economy and industrialisation.

The good news is that digital transformation can reverse Africa’s energy deficit, particularly with the deployment of pay-as-you-go off-grid energy technologies like Helvetic Solar, Mobisol, and Off Grid Electric, which combine solar energy with an affordable payment plan via mobile phone. The use of intelligent electricity grids can also improve energy access and affordability.

The reverse is also true. Energy deficit can disrupt digital transformation. Africa’s ICT sector holds immense potential. The mobile ecosystem, for example, could directly create 1.3 million jobs and generate about $15 billion in public funding by 2020.

No country has successfully built a digital economy with the limited access to energy that sub-Saharan Africa faces today. It was energy sufficiency that allowed countries such as Japan, Korea and Switzerland to build some of the best internet infrastructure in the world.

ICT is booming across the continent. The sector has by far the highest level of growth with 50 percent increase between 2015 and 2016. But investments are lacking. In 2016, for example, the ICT sector received the lowest amount of allocated spending across Africa, with a total of $853 million.

Only 1.4 percent of Africans have fixed-broadband connection and about 600 million people do not have access to a mobile broadband service. This comes with extreme cost. Inadequate ICT infrastructure constrain the widespread connectivity and usage of internet in African countries. Greater energy access will not only make it possible for school children in Dori – a little town in northern Burkina Faso – to learn but it will also provide a boost for a faster internet access. And Dori has abundant solar potential to make this happen.

The continent’s energy deficit compounds the ICT infrastructure problem. The continent’s recurrent power cuts and poor grid connectivity to rural areas undermine efforts to build ICT. Greater energy access will not only make it possible for the functioning of basic services like health and education, but will also integrate remote communities into the knowledge-based economy that governments want to promote.

Fourth Industrial Revolution in Africa

Truly, regional efforts to expand ICT infrastructure have picked up of late.

The African Union’s Agenda 2063 enjoins government to ensure reliable and affordable ICT services by increasing broadband penetration. The African Union Commission and the European Union Commission have committed to developing a continental digital policy with focus on building capacities of African institutions on internet governance and boost the development of Internet-based services.

But it is energy sufficiency that must power digital transformation.

Recognizing this, the African Development Bank’s New Deal on Energy for Africa has, over the last three years, installed an average of 460 MW of new power capacity installed, of which 151 MW is on renewable power capacity. The deal has had more than half a million people connected to the grid.

African governments must set ambitious and clear industrial policies that pool together domestic and foreign sources of finance for dedicated investments into energy and ICT infrastructure. African governments have to raise their ambition to increase energy supply as well as their people’s access to electricity. Boosting the use of Africa’s huge renewable energy resources must be at the heart of this.

The potential of Africa’s energy transformation – for its people and its economies – will unlock the digital transformation we all want. Voices rallying behind the Fourth Industrial Revolution have to come together for this common purpose too.

By: Stephen Yeboah, co-founder of Commodity Monitor, a tech-driven business that uses data analytics to facilitate exchange of information on sustainable production, supply and consumption of commodities in Africa. Email: stephen.yeboah@commoditymonitor.org

Share this article

Leave your comments

Post comment as a guest

0
terms and condition.
  • Daniel Grimwade

    New ways of doing things and consumer consumption patterns will continue to force African organisation to digitise their products and service to provide more flexibility to their customers.

  • Sally Abel

    The energy industry can help shape their local economies

  • Michal Wietrzynski

    African companies will have to follow a step-by-step approach to yield positive results

  • Erik Matsliah

    The fourth industrial revolution has the potential of enabling economic growth in Africa

  • Chloe Holmes

    This has the power to transform communities and even whole economies

  • Taylor Mackley

    Access to energy is growing exponentially.

Share this article

Stephen Yeboah

Political Expert

Stephen is a policy analyst, researcher and strategic communicator on energy, climate, agriculture, finance and natural resources in Africa. He was selected as LinkedIn Top Voice on ‘Economy and Finance’ for 2017. He was also selected as part of 30 under age 30 emerging Ghanaian Talents in the world by the UK-based Future of Ghana. He is a PhD candidate at the Swiss Graduate School of Public Administration (IDHEAP), University of Lausanne, researching on the politics and institutions (governance) of natural resources in Ghana.   

   
Save
Cookies user prefences
We use cookies to ensure you to get the best experience on our website. If you decline the use of cookies, this website may not function as expected.
Accept all
Decline all
Read more
Analytics
Tools used to analyze the data to measure the effectiveness of a website and to understand how it works.
Google Analytics
Accept
Decline